Iain Martin is a political commentator, and a former editor of The Scotsman and former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy, published by Simon & Schuster.. As well as this blog, he writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph. You can read more about Iain by visiting his website

Ukip could get to be really quite annoying

I like Nigel Farage. I like his tireless grassroots campaigning. I like his penchant for a pint, his smoking and the jovial manner in which he annoys the old parties. And as a friend of mine remarked the other day, it is good, no matter what one makes of his views, to see a leading politician once again wearing an overcoat. This overcoat point ( a covert coat with a velvet collar in Nigel's case) is more important than it sounds. The leaders of the big parties have no need of overcoats, because when they are not being waited on in offices maintained at the perfect shirtsleeves temperature, they are in chauffeur-driven cars maintained at the perfect shirtsleeves temperature. Sometimes a railway station is involved and they might need to walk from the car to the train, but this is survivable without an overcoat in all bar the coldest temperatures.

Those of us who travel regularly on public transport, or who have to walk to work (or lunch), know how changeable the British weather is. Which is why we have coats. Unless we hail from Newcastle, where coats are illegal, for much of the year we err on the side of caution and put on a coat unless the forecast says hot sun and no rain. In contrast to Milicamclegg, Farage always puts on his coat (even at weekends), pops a trilby on his head, lights up a fag and walks to the pub to continue devising policies. The rumour that Farage is always photographed with the same pint, which he carries around for publicity purposes, is almost certainly a falsehood got up by Notting Hill types.

Part of the British public is obviously falling in love with Farage, in a Goodwood-Festival-of-Speed-and-membership-of-the-National-Trust-is-such-good-value type way. He is on what Nick Clegg, channeling Simon Cowell, would call " a journey". It is the natural way of these things that once the fuss has died down, and Britain has voted to stay in the EU, Farage will become the jovial darling of the conservative end of the British middle classes. In five years time BBC One will launch a new series: The Great British Farage, followed by Nigel Farage's Balloon Safari. Long before then he will appear as a guest on BBC Top Gear, fronted by Jeremy Clarkson. By the way, Clarkson must be annoyed at recent developments. Before Farage there was only one leader of the Clarksonist party – motto: end the war on the British motorist. Now Clarkson is in danger of being left in the slow-lane by Farage doing 110mph in a Triumph Stag. The "common-sense" classes have a new hero.

But for all Nigel Farage's considerable appeal, I do think it is already apparent that the rest of Ukip could get quite quickly to be very tiresome and really quite annoying. To that end, by far the worst habit of the hardened Ukipper is to claim to speak for The British People, a phrase laden with Marxist undertones, as though The People are one body that can be drilled. "The British People are fed-up with… etc."

It is a very unappealing and un-British notion. I didn't like it when Tony Blair did it, and I don't like it done by anyone, other than perhaps the Queen, who is too smart to do it. When Blair said that Diana was the People's Princess I really, really resented it. Were those of us who didn't agree with that statement not British people? Had there been a memo or a vote that millions of us missed?

The truth is that the British public is not of one certain mind on the question of the European Union, or much else really. All sorts of people whose opinions I respect – normal people with overcoats, not leading politicians – are unsure about the wisdom of leaving the EU. Only a few of them work for the BBC. They are not traitors to their country, or anti-British types determined to "crush England under the Brussels jack-boot".

Yet the language of the Ukippers online – so often men and not women, with "handles" such as "saxonsteve", thorofthanet", "wizardofwar" and "fightingforfreedominhispyjamas" – suggests that everyone has decided, and it is only the corrupt/degenerate/authoritarian/traitorous political and media class that stands in the way of freedom. Perhaps those who disagree are suffering from false consciousness?

Last Thursday Ukip did well, yet it was on a turnout of only 31 per cent in local elections in the Tory-minded bits of England outside the cities. And 80 per cent of those voting did not vote for Nigel Farage's outfit. I acknowledge, as I did ages ago when the Cameroons were saying that the Ukip threat was meaningless, that the party could have an enormous impact on the next general election. But it has not come anywhere close to winning the argument, let alone winning a seat in Parliament.

These points may not be much liked by many full-on Ukippers (*). Indeed, it is curious how those most exercised by political madness gone correct, sorry political correctness gone mad, who are forever saying that their opponents are trying to gag them, really do not like it when they are criticised. They are also – if they keep up this way of talking to the rest of us – only going to do an entirely legitimate cause grave damage by making Euroscepticism sound unreasonable, uncongenial and unhinged.

(*) I will consider awarding a special prize for any Ukipper who got to the end of this without commenting and can then admit I might have a point. I am not offering a "cast-iron" guarantee of a prize. But I will, circumstances permitting, think about it.